Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club

by Nuttall Ornithological Club

But their practices are sometimes varied. If a box is not too large, and the hole is only large enough to admit of the passage of the birds, they will often carry in only just enough material to build the nest, leaving the space all open above. I have often known them to pursue this course in building in a cigar box where a small hole had been made at the middle of one of the sides. But if the box is a large one with a large hole cut through the end near the top, as it is suspended on a tree or the side of a building, then they will carry in “fully a peck of rubbish,” and build the soft nest down on the side opposite the entrance.—Charles Aldrich, Webster City, Iowa.

Remarkable Plumage of the Orchard Oriole.—There is in the collection here a very curiously marked specimen of the Orchard Oriole (Icterus spurius) from Columbia, Pa. It is evidently a male bird in the transition stage of plumage from young to that of the adult. Young males of this species usually exhibit “confused characters of both sexes,” but in this case the male plumage is confined to the right side of the bird, and the female plumage to the left side, the two colorations uniting on median lines above and below. So distinctly is this peculiarity marked, that a bilateral section of the bird would divide the phases about equally. The left side, however, shows very slight traces of black and chestnut, yet not so distinct as to lessen the general yellowish-olive appearance of the female. There is more of the white on the coverts of the left wing than usual.—Charles H. Townsend, Acad. Nat. Science, Philadelphia, Pa.

The Nest and Eggs of Perisoreus Canadensis.—The nest upon which the following description is based was found by Mr. P. S. Glasier on April 7th, 1881, twenty-three miles from Grand Falls, New Brunswick. It was built in a small fir tree with few branches, about ten feet from the ground. The tree was in “mixed land” beside a brook, on the south side of a hill and near a lumber camp. From the men in the camp it was learned that the bird built the nest about the middle of March, and had been sitting for ten days. The parent bird was found on the nest, shot, and forwarded to me, so that there can be no doubt of identity.

The nest is rather a large structure, between nine and ten inches in diameter and five inches deep. The cavity is slightly oval, measuring three and six-tenths by three and two-tenths, and is two inches deep.

The bottom is formed of large pieces of rotten wood, which must have been torn from some neighboring stump, while the sides are supported by a scraggy structure of long twigs. The walls are formed of strips of bark and the subjacent rotten wood, apparently of cedars, cocoons, the remains of wasp nests, lichens and the like. All this material is closely packed together, but not woven, so that were it not for the outer coat of twigs the whole would quickly fall apart. On one side, snarled up among the twigs, is a long piece of white twine, which shows that the neighboring camp was called upon to pay its tribute. The lining is quite thick, and offers a decided contrast to the walls. Rootlets of various kinds form the greater part, though grass and the remains of wasp nests form the floor. A few feathers are scattered throughout the structure and about as many more are to be found inside. By far the greater part of these are from the Jays themselves, and they might be regarded as of accidental occurrence were it not for a few from some species of Grouse. As a whole the nest is a substantial structure, admirably adapted to keep the eggs and nestlings warm.

The eggs were three in number, and are of about the same size and form as those of the Blue Jay. Their ground-color is a light green of much the same color as the Field Sparrow’s egg. Two of the eggs are thickly covered with fine spots of lavender and light brown, the spots being most abundant at the large end. The third has less lavender and more brown, while the spots are of considerable size and evenly distributed.—J. Amory Jeffries, Boston, Mass.

Notes on the Plumage of Nephœcetes niger borealis.—An examination of ten birds of this species, taken at Howardsville, Colorado, in 1880 and 1881, leads me to believe that four years are necessary for them to acquire their complete plumage. A young male of the year, taken Sept. 17, was marked as follows. General color dull black, every feather tipped with white, scarcely appreciable on upper back and throat, broader on upper tail-coverts and rump. Crissum almost pure white. In birds of the second year the general plumage has a brownish cast; feathers of back tipped with brown, the head whitish, belly feathers yet broadly tipped with white. The third year the color is black, with a very faint edging of white on under tail-coverts. In the fourth year pure black, forehead hoary, neck with a brownish wash. Feathers bordering the black loral crescent whitish.

Tail in young of first year, rounded; in second year, slightly rounded; in third year slightly emarginate, feathers becoming more acute. In adult, forked, outer feathers three-eighths of an inch longer than inner.

I do not know when they come—some time late in June—but they remain until long after the Violet-green Swallows leave. They always hunt in flocks, range far above 13,000 feet and breed up to at least 11,000 feet. Those I have shot have had their crops filled with Ephemeridæ, and it is only when a cloud of insects is discovered low down that the birds come within gunshot range. Often one will sweep down almost to the earth and, swinging on in the same ellipse, soar far up entirely out of sight.

Measurements from dried skins of eight specimens give an average length of six and seven-sixteenths inches, with extremes of seven and one-half inches—an adult male, and five and seven-eighths inches—a young female; and an average wing of six and five-sevenths inches, with extremes of six and seven-eighths and six and three-eighths inches.—Frank M. Drew, Bunker Hill, Ill.